Barry Gardiner has been axed as the government’s special envoy for forestry after accusing Brown this weekend of “vacillation, loss of international credibility and timorous political manoeuvres that the public cannot understand”. How will the trees cope?

The former minister twisted the knife saying “The tragedy for those of us who nominated the prime minister is that since achieving power he appears to have forgotten what it was he once wanted to do with it.” Clearly the only bit of dead wood the former Forestry Envoy is interested is Gordon…